Advances in communication infrastructures and devices have turned standard communication devices into valuable tools. People communicate with each other, and with other electronic devices, over networks ranging from Local Area Networks (LANs) to wide reaching Global Area Networks (GANs) such as the Internet. Wireless communications devices such as mobile phones, Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs), and the like are often designed to interface with such networks as well as with their local surroundings using short-range wireless technologies.
Today, such wireless devices are being used for a variety of different types of communication, as well as the creation of original content. For example, current and anticipated mobile phone technologies have transformed wireless devices into powerful tools capable of capturing and communicating voice, data, images, video, and other multimedia content. Mobile phones, at one time solely a voice communication tool, now often include digital photographic, video, and audio recording capabilities along with network communication capabilities such as e-mail and World Wide Web browsing.
Digital content, such as still pictures, audio, video and other multimedia, can be captured and transmitted via these communications devices and infrastructures. Such features are particularly useful to vacationers and other travelers, as a single communication device such as a mobile phone can be carried instead of also carrying cameras, video cameras, etc. These multi-feature communication devices provide another significant convenience to the user, which is the ability to create such content and immediately transmit the content to friends, family, or other desired recipients.
However, because such a large volume of content is already accessible to mobile device users due to the global reach of mobile and landline networks, a recipient of a multimedia message may not know whether the image was actually created by the mobile device user, or whether the mobile device user simply retrieved the image from the Internet or other network. The use of conventional postcards does not exhibit this problem, as such conventional postcards are mailed with a post office stamp or other postmark that indicates the general area from which the postcard was mailed (e.g., post office, city, etc.). When a person is traveling, he/she may find mailboxes located at various places where postcards can be mailed and receive a postmark from that location. This is particularly true at tourist/vacation areas, where such mailboxes may be placed at strategic locations to assist travelers. The traveler purchases a postcard, writes any greetings and address, places a stamp on the postcard, and places the completed postcard in a mailbox. The postcard will be stamped with a particular postmark, and the receiver of the postcard will see that the traveler has actually been at that location.
As can be seen from the foregoing, using conventional postcards may be inconvenient to travelers. When the traveler is in a new place, he/she may need to find a new place to purchase stamps, will need to find a pen, etc. Generally, the traveler puts such tasks off until a later time, and then purchases many postcards and completes them all at one time. In other words, it is also difficult for travelers to be spontaneous in sending conventional postcards. Further, while the advent of multimedia-capable communication devices has created many conveniences to travelers, there is no way to prove or otherwise establish where a picture was taken, and there is little flexibility in the manner in which such pictures may be provided to recipients.
Individuals other than travelers and vacationers may also need to establish where they were, or when they were at a location. For example, many workplace situations involve scheduled appointments, service events, mandatory regulatory checks, or other events where proof of attendance or compliance may be beneficial, or even required. For example, a worker may be tasked with maintaining service points in various geographic locations, and is often on the road to accomplish such tasks. Due to regulatory requirements, employment accountability or other reasons, the worker may need to establish evidence of his/her whereabouts or task status. Currently, there is no convenient manner of providing this information, or to easily confirm the veracity of the worker's affirmations of compliance.
The present invention provides a solution to these and other shortcomings of the prior art, and provides many advantages over the prior art.